All that being said...

Ryan is such a sweet little boy!  He's in that 2-3 year old phase right now.  But all in all, I could not ask for a better kid. Now that he is really talking, it's so great to hear him express how he's feeling, what he's thinking about.

Kurt came up with a game while riding in the car.  We ask "Where's the red car?"  Ryan will look around, "Where are you red car?" When he sees one, "There you are!"  This works for blue car, trucks, big trucks, etc.

When I get home from work Ryan will run to me screaming "MOMMEEEE, I FOUND MOMMMEEEE!"  My heart burst every time he does it.

The other night Ryan and I were in his room and he pointed up at the ceiling and told me about the rainbow he saw up there.  It was the first time Ryan has really included me in his imagination.  We talked about the rainbow, that it was a big rainbow, all the colors.  It was amazing.

And when I put him to bed and say "Good night, I love you."  Ryan will reply "I laaa ewe."

So while the 2 year old drama makes for funnier material.  The sweet moments out weigh them by a million.

-M

Phases

We are always in the middle of some phase.  No sleeping phase, teeth phase, no eating phase, whining phase.  Seems that as soon as we get a handle on a phase, we already on to the next one and start all over.

Let me say this first, in case Ryan reads my blog one day.  Ryan I love you so very much.

But you are so annoying right now.

You have developed this awful thing called "opinions".  It would be fine if you wanted to do it on your own.  It being whatever we are trying to get accomplished at the time.  Eating dinner or getting dressed or drying your hair after a bath.  "No MommEEE!  Not de hair!!!!"  And to make it worse, Reid is now a fully fledged crawler and invading your space.  Heaven forbid he touches a toy of yours.  And I'm pretty sure you think that the Apocalypse is upon us if he messes up your train tracks.  This then starts the running around with whatever toy Reid has violated screaming "Mine!  Mine!"

My cousin Amy is pregnant with her 2nd boy.  Her 2 boys will be the same distance in age as Ryan and Reid are.  I can't wait to read her blog in a year.

Good times.

-m

This....

All.  Day.  Long.

-m

If you're going to hurl... hurl in here

I have several things to blog about; Potty Training, The Phase, and The Plague

But today I'm going to talk about puking.  I have mentioned the awful morning sickness I had the whole time I was pregnant with Reid.  But I never went into much detail.  Today = detail.

Right after we found out I was pregnant, I got a cold with a cough.  One morning I was at my desk at work and I coughed... and throw up all over my desk.  It happened so fast I didn't even have time to bend over to the trash can.  A co-worker ran to get me paper towels to clean up and I carried my trash bag full of pukey paper towels out to the dumpster.  The first of many times I would carry a trash bag full of puke to the dumpster.

Still early in the pregnancy, the morning sickness lasted all day long.  I would keep bags in my car so I would have something to throw up in on my drive home from work.  But then the puking got worse and even though I should have been past the morning sickness phase, I was still puking.

One day I had chipotle for lunch.  I love chipotle.  I started throwing up so much at work I called my doctor and begged for them to either kill me or give me something to stop it.  Work sent me home.  I don't blame them.  I filled up all my puke bags in the car, but the chipolte was still coming up.  Out of bags, in desperation I emptied out a tissue box and threw up in it.  In a parking lot not far from the house a crying, miserable, pregnant woman left a tissue box full of barf.  I still feel bad about that.  But I was a mess and didn't know what to do.  If I got out to walk it to the trash I would have surely been puking in the street for all to see.  So some poor sole had to clean that up.  That person earned a lot of karma points that day.  And chipolte has never been the same for me.

The doctor gave me some medication that reduced but did not end the vomiting.  Now I was down to throwing up only once or twice a day.  More on days when I received a fresh batch of hormones.  And it was mostly in the evenings.  The coughing never stopped.  For whatever reason coughing and puking went together like peanut butter and jelly.

Which brings me to lessons I've learned about puking.  If you know it's going to happen, eat foods you don't mind tasting on the way back up.  I planned most of my meals that way.  I figured out what I was cool with and what was awful.  Beef, bad.  Salads, bad.  Pasta, ok.  Cereal, ok.  Nice mild food.  Chew well so it's less chunky.

I also learned how to throw up.  Got to where I could tell it was coming and keep it down until I got to the bathroom or kitchen sink.  If I threw up in the middle of the night I would do it in the sink so I wouldn't wake Kurt up.  Isn't that sweet of me!  Another lesson, take off your glasses.  Nothing like digging glasses out of a bowl full of dinner.  And close your eyes.  One day I was bent over the toilet and the puke splashed back up into my eye.  Giving me pink eye.  I got pink eye from my own toilet vomit.

Lesson 4 or 5, I've lost count... keep your toilet clean.  Nothing worse that being trapped there and noticing how gross it is.  It's already a terrible experience, no need to make it even worse.

Eventually puking just became part of my daily routine.  Like giving Ryan a bath and throwing up in the toilet next to the tub.  Or DVRing certain shows because you know they air during puke time.

It was miserable.  There were some nights I would just cry because I didn't think I could take another day of puking and coughing.  Made for the longest pregnancy in the history of mankind.  The c-section was scheduled and Kurt and I went out for dinner the night before.  One last dinner.  It was delicious.  And I threw it all up later that night.  I had morning sickness up till 9 hours before Reid was born.  And the second he was out it all stopped.  No more coughing, no more puking.  Just an amazing baby.  And suddenly it was all worth it.

I will be holding this over Reid's head for the rest of his life.

-m

Food Wars

When Reid started using a highchair, we moved Ryan to a booster seat.  But he never really took to it.  I have always feared the day Ryan would be free range at meal time.  That time is now. 

I am a believer that kids need to sit down at the table with the family for dinner.  And I am a believer in enforcing these social rules young.

However.

Parenting is really about tolerance:  All these different personalities mixed in together...  What you are willing and not willing to put up with.  What can you tolerate plus the personality (read: annoying traits) of the kid create a unique balance in every family.  Like snow flakes and boogers, no 2 are the same.

For instance, stuff that drives me nuts;

·        Whining.  Oh the whining!!!  Stop it with the whining!!!! 

·        Fighting me while I’m trying to get you dress.  I cannot wait until they can dress themselves.  The mornings, I’m half ready for work on the floor trying to keep Reid from rolling over so I can get his damn pants on.  Having Ryan run away from me when it’s time to get him dressed.  Kicking me while I’m trying to get his pants on.  Pulling shirts over their giant melons.

·        Ryan has this new thing where he’ll hit the wall and then cry because it hurts.  Well then don’t hit the wall.

Stuff that doesn’t bother me so much;

·        Noise.  I’m fine with play yelling, noisy toys.  Ryan notices if I’m not paying attention to whatever it is he’s babbling on about and will stop to yell “MOMMY!!!!”  I think this is cute.

·        “No”.  Ryan says “no” 8 million times a day.  Seriously, I counted once.  8 million times.  Doesn’t bother me. 

·        Dog piling me.  I play on the floor a lot with the boys and Ryan loves to climb all over me.  The only time it’s an issue is if he hurts me.  I always point out to him that he’s hurt me because one day he will be bigger than me.

Back to my point.   Free range Ryan at dinner time.  He will not stay in his chair.  We could fight him, force him, punish him.  But he’s 2 1/2 , all we’d get back is screaming and crying.  Then bedtime is a miserable experience for everyone.  And that is something I am not cool with, I worked way too hard when he was a baby to screw up bedtime now. 

Our strategy is to ignore his antics in an attempt to get attention.  And repeat over and over “sit down and finish your dinner.”

I never thought I’d be the mom with the kid running around at dinner time.  But alas, this is what it’s come to, I’d rather work on the table manners later and keep a pleasant bedtime routine now. 

Ask me when they are teenagers what I’m willing and not willing to tolerate.

-m

Osmosis

I really enjoy my weekends at home with the boys.  Quality time.  Relaxing (sort of).  No pressure to rush around.  Ryan is now telling me about everything he encounters, thinks, or thinks about thinking.  Big truck!  Big Dinosaur!  Boat in the Water!  Cup in the Sky!  Big Dinosaur!  Big Dinosaur!  Big Dinosaur! 

There are only so many times I can be excited about the big dinosaur.  I love that he wants to share everything with me.  And I know one day I’ll have to pry it out of him with a crowbar.  But everyone has their limits.  I’m sure even Mother Teresa rolled her eyes once and a while.  That’s right, I just compared myself to Mother Teresa. 

So I get excited about the Big Dinosaur!  And then chuckle to myself. 

When Ryan was in his crib and had a cold, we elevated his mattress with books.  Specifically, my statistics book from college.  I always hoped some osmosis would take place.  Reid had a cold over the weekend and I elevated his mattress with Kurt’s book on the constitution.   I’m thinking of rotating out my lighting design books, maybe Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, and then Kurt’s recipes from culinary school.  He will be one well rounded man!

I should have thought of this sooner and put more of my theatre books from college under Ryan’s mattress.  I need to start working on that so I can hear Big Ellipsoidal!  (Lighting joke.  I’m a nerd.)

-m

Not sure I can stay away.

I decided to shut down my blog.  But I'm still writing blogs in my head.  They are way funnier in my head too.

So maybe I won't give it up just yet.

Master Reid is a whopping 24 1/2 lbs at 9 1/2 months.  And he is still the happiest baby you will ever meet.  He has come quite far recently in his mobility.  He was up rocking on his knees for months and months.  I kept thinking any day he'd take off.  But he didn't.  I think he might have giving up on crawling all together, but boy can he army crawl now.  He rolls all over the place.  And it doing a great job transitioning between laying down and sitting up on his own.

All of Reid's teeth are coming in at the same time.  So it's been rough the last few weeks.  The amount of drool, wow.  Just wow.  Note to self: like most things, drool follows the rules of gravity.  Therefore, hold baby over head, drool will come down... onto my face... in mass quantities.

-m